Welcome to Pearl

Welcome to Pearl Capital! We were founded in 2010 and acquired by private equity firm Capital Z Partners in 2015. Since then, we have become one of the top leaders in the fintech industry specializing in short term capital advance solutions for under-banked and credit-challenged businesses, in just about every industry. We’ve proudly provided over 23,000 financings to small businesses across the country, by working with our expansive network of ISOs. We believe our success lies with your ability to succeed - and we’ve made it easier than ever to get even the toughest deals done, with tools like our ISO Leverage Calculator, Proprietary Price Calculator, and Real-time Deal Management Platform. Our Advanced Technology and Underwriting allows us to provide flexible terms, and some of the fastest response times in the industry, for deals up to one-million dollars. Additional programs like our White Label Solution and Leverage for Deal Syndication are provided to help ISOs like you grow your brand and increase revenue. Want to find out more? Please fill out our contact form or call us to discuss all that Pearl has to offer with one of our top notch ISO Representatives today.

Meet our team

Solomon Lax

Chief Executive Officer

A message from our CEO

We live in challenging but exciting times. As any participant in the MCA world can attest, more money is flowing into funding deals, more ISOs are entering the fray, and consolidation is occurring. Institutional estimates of the volume of the $180B small business loan market moving to MCA or other bank alternatives range from $15-50B. As large as the MCA market now seems, it is only going to get larger and more competitive.

What does it take to win?

It used to be that anyone could open up as a funder, throw money against the wall, and have it stick. If you were a good sales team, you could open an ISO and the money would roll in. Times are a'changing. The price of entry for funders now includes a low cost of capital, robust risk management systems, plus enough staff and automation to guarantee speed of delivery, responsiveness, transparency, and visibility to ISOs - and there's also the "I" word: Integrity.As an ISO, you are challenged by funders going direct, tougher compliance standards, the rising cost of customer acquisition as competing ad spends drive up prices, and the slow grind of communicating and managing funders. Through all this, you had to ensure that your hard won merchant leads stayed yours.At Pearl Capital, we have always been the home of that really tough deal that you couldn't get funded anywhere else. We have devoted talented ISO relationship managers and the best underwriting team in the business. But we have to confess that we lost ground in 2013 and 2014 when other funders started taking on those tough files. We stopped listening to you and were no longer the most competitive bid, the fastest turn around, and the most transparent process. When you thought of Pearl, you thought of a third look funder and that car you used to own in 2012 before you traded up.Well 2014 is over and we are determined to take our market back. Pearl is now owned by a leading private equity group Capital Z Partners (www.capitalz.com) whose sole focus is financial services and that has successfully invested close to $3B in businesses over the past 25 years. We will continue to fund those tough files and compete hard for the entire credit-challenged merchant market.The new Pearl is returning to its roots, focusing on collaboration and building opportunities by strengthening partnerships.
You have seen some significant changes at Pearl, including:

Our pledge to you is to never forget that you are our most important relationship, that we succeed when you succeed, and that we need to compete for your business - every day.

Welcome to the new Pearl.

Solomon Lax

Chief Executive Officer

John Diamond

Chief Credit Officer, SVP Capital Markets

Sholom Dreyfuss

CIO / VP of Engineering

Adam Greissman

Chief Technology Officer

Elie Friedman

Chief Underwriting Officer

Jared Kogan

Chief Revenue Officer

Aidel Miller

SVP, Human Resources

Josh Ross

VP, Business Development

James Scavuzzo

VP, Business Development

Oded Segev

Chief Financial Officer

Work with us

We have a fondness for very smart people that dream of world domination.

If you can answer one of these questions, we want to speak with you.

Question 1

You’re in a hallway with 100 doors. You open every door. Then you go back to the beginning and close every other door. You return to the beginning and toggle every 3rd door.Â YouÂ continue this pattern until you start at the last door. How many doors are open after the last pass?

Question 2

You have a large cube composed of 8 x 8 x 8 small cubes. How many small cubes are onÂ the surface of the large cube? How many small cubes are on the surface of a large cube composed of NÂ x N x N small cubes?

Question 1

What is your opinion on whether predictive models for MCA are really enriched byÂ macro factors?

Question 2

Have launched white label marketing campaigns for financial products, or led ISO sales and would like to join our team contact us

Question 1

Money is flooding into the market and bids for advances are steadily climbing. You are syndicating on your own deals but also being compensated by your volume of deals funded. How doÂ you balance your risk/reward?

Join a world-class team!

Learn what it’s like to work at Pearl, and check out available job opportunities.

A word on Capital Z Partners

Capital Z is a leading global private equity fund, specializing in financial service investments since 1990.

With one of the most experienced teams in the sector, Capital Z has a strong track record in completing unique, complex transactions and in helpingquality management teams receive the capital they need. Capital Z has invested approximately $3 billion in over 40 transactionsworldwide.

In Capital Z, Pearl Capital has the partner it needs to continue fostering growth, positioning itself as one of the leaders in the industry.

Solomon Lax

Chief Executive Officer

Solomon Lax served as Chief Executive Officer at Pearl Capital since 2015, where he was previously Chief Operating Officer and President. As COO, Sol led the development of Pearl’s institutional infrastructure, culminating in the company’s acquisition in 2015 by Capital Z Partners. His 15 years of experience as a venture capitalist and investment banker include bridge and venture debt financing, restructuring, distressed company investment, and mergers and acquisitions. He is one of two founding partners of Cato Capital, LLC., where he was responsible for seeding both a healthcare receivable firm and a venture debt fund. Before entering the securities industry Sol was a general partner of CS Capital Partners LLC, an early stage venture fund, and a board member of several portfolio companies. Sol also served as CFO of the largest single-family home property owner in Maryland.

John Diamond

Chief Credit Officer, SVP Capital Markets

John Diamond has served as Pearl Capital’s Chief Credit Officer/ SVP Capital Markets since 2015, where he oversees the strategic vision of new and existing products as well as focusing on institutional syndication, pricing and deal flow management. Prior to joining Pearl, John was an Investment Banker at FBR Capital Markets, serving clients in the specialty finance industry.

Sholom Dreyfuss

CIO / VP of Engineering

Sholom has served as CIO / VP of Engineering at Pearl Capital since 2015. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations & support of the myriad systems used by the business, as well as leading the development teams in designing & building out new initiatives. Prior to joining Pearl, he spent a large part of his career in the Derivatives Technology space, working in the Capital Markets technology group at Citi Group, and then at Calypso Technology.

Adam Greissman

Chief Technology Officer

Adam Greissman has served as Chief Technology Officer at Pearl Capital since 2013, focused on the development of predictive analytics and the risk management system. Prior to joining Pearl, Adam optimized data and technology systems for several large companies including Prop Trading New Co., Albatross Management LLC, Citi, and The Angle Group. In these roles, he focused primarily on credit contingencies, pricing assumptions, and risk calculations. Prior to this, Adam was a Technical Director and System Architect for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he designed and led the implementation of capital markets integrations and system architecture for major financial institutions including Chase Manhattan Bank, Nomura Securities, and Credit Lyonnais.

Elie Friedman

Chief Underwriting Officer

Elie Friedman has served as Chief Underwriting Officer at Pearl Capital since 2010. He manages the company’s growing team of Underwriters and plays a key role in identifying strategic development opportunities. Prior to Pearl, Elie was Senior Account Executive for Business Payment Systems. In 2005, he co-founded and served as CEO of Second Source Funding, scaling and managing its operational efficiency, partner relationships and sales team development. Elie also implemented and oversaw the vetting of all applications, assessing company portfolios for risk prevention and submission quality in regards to cash flow and veracity of bank statements.

Jared Kogan

Chief Revenue Officer

Jared Kogan has served as Chief Revenue Officer for Pearl Capital since 2017. He is responsible for leading the Sales team’s growth by strengthening ties with existing ISOs and launching new strategic partnerships. Prior to Pearl, Jared served as Director of External Sales at OnDeck where he led the growth of the ISO channel and established a merchant referral program featuring partnerships with banks, credit unions, insurance agents, and other financial services providers. Before that, Jared worked in various roles at Merchant Cash and Capital (MCC) and Newtek, the largest non-bank SBA lender in the country.

Aidel Miller

SVP, Human Resources

Aidel Miller has served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Pearl Capital since 2015. She oversees all aspects of human resources, including recruitment, compensation benefits, and employee relations. Prior to Pearl, Aidel had over 20 years of diverse HR consulting and management experience in both profit and non-profit organizations. She had worked as a Senior HR Advisor at RealHR Consulting and Director of HR at Birthright Israel. Other career highlights include key roles at HR Dynamics, APCO, FEGS, and VP of HR with Amalgamated Bank.

Josh Ross

VP, Business Development

Joshua Ross has served as Vice President of Business Development for Pearl Capital since 2017, Josh builds partnerships with firms who service small business and brings to their attention Pearl’s exciting new changes in the marketplace. Prior to Pearl he was with Swift Capital as a Head of Partner Channel Sales. Josh’s prior experience has been with Hakkasan Group, Revel Casino, TechLink Systems and Insight Global.

James Scavuzzo

VP, Business Development

James Scavuzzo has served as Vice President of Business Development for Pearl Capital since 2017. Jim builds partnerships with firms who service small business and brings to their attention Pearl’s exciting new changes in the marketplace. Prior to Pearl he was with Can Capital as an Area Manager in Sales and Business Development. Jim’s prior experience has been with Comcast Spotlight and Verizon Information Services.

Oded Segev

Chief Financial Officer

Oded Segev joined Pearl Capital in 2016. Prior to Pearl, he was with The Siegfried Group, responsible for serving clients in the financial services industry, assisting with M&A and equity raise projects. Oded began his career at KPMG in their Financial Services Audit Group. He was an Audit Manager serving both public and private clients in the Hedge Fund and Private Equity space. After a number of years, Oded moved to the Accounting division at Goldman Sachs, handling quarterly consolidation analysis as well as supporting the Private Wealth Management team. He then joined Stabilis Capital Management where he spearheaded many distressed asset turnarounds as an Asset Manager. During his tenure at Stabilis, Oded also served as a Controller, Underwriter and Investor Relations.